Martial Peak
chapter-5431

Not long after the intense battle started, both Yang Kai and the sheep-headed Royal Lord felt their hearts sinking as they sported solemn expressions.

For Yang Kai, even though his strength had increased by several times, he was still no match for the other party.

Although there was only a difference of one Order between them, it was the biggest gap to cross.

When Yang Kai was a Fifth-Order Master, he could kill a Sixth-Order Master. When he was a Sixth-Order Master, he could kill a Seventh-Order Master. When he was a Seventh-Order Master, he could kill a Territory Lord; however, as an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master now, he realized he had no hope of killing a Ninth-Order Master with his own strength alone.

A Royal Lord’s power was equivalent to that of a Ninth-Order Master.

He could even clearly feel that the Royal Lord still hadn’t fully recovered. In other words, the other party wasn’t in peak condition, yet he still wasn’t a match.

[Damn it! If this drags on, I’ll fall into an unfavourable position; however, if I don’t kill this Royal Lord, I can’t keep the secrets of the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon safe.]

While this was giving Yang Kai a headache, the Royal Lord was equally frustrated.

The Human across from him was significantly more powerful than he was 500 years ago. Although they hadn’t been fighting for long, the Royal Lord came to realise that it wouldn’t be easy for him to kill this opponent.

There was no doubt this Human still wasn’t a match for him, but he already had the power to oppose him.

Other powerful Eighth-Order Human Masters could also probably deal with him for a time, but the Royal Lord was confident he could kill such enemies sooner or later. However, Yang Kai was different. This guy was a Master of the Dao of Space and the Royal Lord vividly remembered being unable to capture him despite having pursued him for years 500 years ago.

If nothing changed in their current battle, Yang Kai would probably flee.

[I can’t give him a chance to run; otherwise, I’ll never find out what Cang gave him. Cang’s trump card must be of critical importance and must be controlled by us!]

Both of them had different thoughts in their minds, but at that moment, they decided they needed to go all in to defeat the other party at the same time.

The next moment, Yang Kai suddenly leaped away from the Royal Lord, widening the gap between them. He initially thought that the Royal Lord would stop him, but instead, the Royal Lord just let him go.

Despite his puzzlement, Yang Kai didn’t have time to ponder on the issue as he dropped the Azure Dragon Spear and began rapidly forming a set of hand seals.

A Golden Crow cawed as a Great Sun leaped into existence. Following that, a cold Full Moon rose from behind him as it cast its glow onto the void. The Sun and Moon appeared at the same time, forming a wondrous vision.

The moment the Sun and Moon manifested, they began orbiting around Yang Kai, affecting both space and time in the surrounding region.

Time Principles spread out, while Space Principles undulated and intertwined with them, forming an entirely new kind of strength.

Sun and Moon Divine Wheel!

This was the most powerful trump card Yang Kai could bring out besides his Dragon Bead.

It was also the Divine Ability he had invented through his own comprehension. Activating it was not difficult, but the prerequisites to cast it were extraordinarily difficult, such that only Yang Kai was capable of it as it was formed from the resonance of his two strongest Grand Daos. Therefore, this Divine Ability displayed an extraordinary might when he used it.

He was unable to use his Dragon Bead casually, so to deal with this Royal Lord, Yang Kai could only rely on his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel.

If this move wasn’t even useful, he would have no choice but to retreat before trying to come up with another way to kill the Royal Lord.

The instant Yang Kai cast his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, the Royal Lord also looked up and glared at him.

His dark eyes seemed to have turned into a bottomless abyss as though they could devour Yang Kai. His obsidian eyes reflected Yang Kai’s figure, which was engulfed in endless Black Ink Strength. It was as if he was burning with a dark flame.

Royal Lord Secret Technique!

At that instant, both Yang Kai and the Royal Lord brought out their most lethal moves in an attempt to defeat the other party. It could be said that they had made the same judgement in this situation and acted decisively on it.

Yang Kai was startled as he was quite familiar with the Royal Lord Secret Technique.

For the Black Ink Clansmen below the Royal Lords, if they wanted to corrupt a Human, they just had to release their Black Ink Strength to invade that Human’s body and Small Universe. If that Human couldn’t resist, they would be turned into a Black Ink Disciple.

Royal Lords could naturally do the same, but they also had a better and more efficient method, which was known to the Humans as the Royal Lord Secret Technique.

It was well known among the Humans that when a Royal Lord activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique, even an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master couldn’t resist it, instantly turning them into a Black Ink Disciple.

This was one of the reasons the Eighth-Order Masters didn’t interfere carelessly when a Ninth-Order Old Ancestor battled a Royal Lord. A Ninth-Order Master could fend off the Royal Lord Secret Technique, but those in the Eighth-Order couldn’t. Once they were struck by the Royal Lord Secret Technique during an intense battle, the Humans were bound to suffer immense losses.

To deal with a Royal Lord, a Ninth-Order Master had to personally make a move.

The Humans had been studying the secrets behind the Royal Lord Secret Technique for years, but they hadn’t found out anything useful yet, mainly because no Royal Lord would easily activate the Royal Lord Secret Technique.

Without a target they could study or examples they could learn from, the Humans obviously couldn’t gather any useful information.

With that said, the high-ranking officers had speculated that the Royal Lord Secret Technique might be a kind of Innate Divine Ability that was exclusive to the Black Ink Clan. Only Royal Lords were able to use this Innate Divine Ability, and it was most likely a kind of attack that directly affected one’s Soul.

Certainly, Yang Kai had heard of such information and even experienced it for himself twice in the past, but he was too weak back then to really understand what was happening. Now, having reached the Eighth-Order and possessing incredible Soul cultivation, he was finally able to realize that the Royal Lord Secret Technique wasn’t purely a Soul Technique, but rather a combination of one with an Eye Secret Technique.

When the Royal Lord activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique, Yang Kai could clearly see his own reflection in the other party’s eyes.

The figure was engulfed in thick Black Ink Strength, as though he had really turned into a Black Ink Disciple.

At the same time, Yang Kai was indeed covered in Black Ink Strength in reality. The Black Ink Strength was pure, and it was as though it had appeared out of nowhere. At the very least, Yang Kai didn’t see his opponent releasing this Black Ink Strength.

The thick and pure Black Ink Strength soon penetrated his physique, and despite his best efforts, Yang Kai was unable to resist its invasion.

This kind of corrosion was harmless to his body, but the Royal Lord Secret Technique was never meant to be lethal.

The pure and dense Black Ink Strength invaded Yang Kai’s Small Universe in the blink of an eye, but unlike what would normally happen, the Black Ink Strength just sputtered, like a stone dropping into an ocean.

Any other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would have been turned into a Black Ink Disciple and been enslaved to the Royal Lord by now; however, Yang Kai’s Small Universe had the protection of a World Tree clone. He had even planted a Low-Rank Black Ink Nest in his Small Universe many years ago to nurture some low-level Black Ink Clansmen to use as training tools for the disciples of the Void Dao Temple.

A massive amount of Black Ink Strength had already been suppressed and sealed in his Small Universe; therefore, Yang Kai was truly not afraid of its corrosion anymore.

Cang once told him that the World Tree clone might not be able to fend off the Black Ink Strength from Mo itself, for he was the source of all Black Ink Strength, but although the sheep-headed Royal Lord was also powerful, he was orders of magnitude weaker than Mo. As such, he could never break through the World Tree clone’s protection.

Suddenly, Yang Kai realised that the Royal Lord’s aura had plunged tremendously after he cast the Royal Lord Secret Technique.

At that instant, Yang Kai recalled the reason why the Royal Lords wouldn’t use the Royal Lord Secret Technique unless it was absolutely necessary to do so.

That was because there was a price to pay if they wanted to use it.

This Secret Technique was extremely powerful, and it was silent when it was cast. As such, the Eighth-Order Masters could not hope to defend themselves from it. If the Royal Lords could repeatedly cast it without any restraints, the Black Ink Clan would just have to send a Royal Lord to wander around the battlefield to turn all the Eighth-Order Masters into Black Ink Disciples. Once that happened, the Human Race would be doomed.

However, since there was clearly a big price to pay, the Royal Lords wouldn’t use the Royal Lord Secret Technique as they pleased lest the Ninth-Order Masters seize the chance and kill them.

Obviously, the life of a Royal Lord was far more important than a few Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters.

Upon that realization, Yang Kai started grinning. He was still engulfed in Black Ink Strength, making him look extremely evil.

He was initially worried that his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel might not be powerful enough to deal with this Royal Lord; nevertheless, the latter had been significantly weakened after he activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique. As such, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel would probably be quite deadly to him.

Just as Yang Kai was affected by the Royal Lord Secret Technique and his entire figure was covered in Black Ink Strength, the power of the swirling Sun and Moon reached the Royal Lord.

Yang Kai’s eyes brightened as he was secretly thrilled.

It wasn’t the first time he used the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel. In fact, he had cast this Divine Ability many times back then to deal with opponents who were more powerful than he was; however, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had never been more powerful than it was now. It was to the point where even Yang Kai felt the Divine Ability was unusually powerful on this day.

There was no denying it had something to do with his advancement in the Dao of Time; however, he reckoned the biggest reason was that he had reached a form of equilibrium.

In the past, his mastery over the Dao of Space had always been greater than his mastery over the Dao of Time.

Before he headed to the No-Return Pass, his mastery over the Dao of Space had already reached the Eighth Level while his mastery over the Dao of Time was only on the Sixth Level.

After the training in the Dragon Pool, the power of his Dragon Vein increased tremendously, which resulted in his mastery over the Dao of Time reaching the Seventh Level.

When he was cultivating in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, Yang Kai managed to absorb and refine several dozen Temporal Rivers, thus pushing his Dao of Time to the Eighth Level, which was on the same level as his Dao of Space.

In the past, when he activated his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, Yang Kai realised that there was an imbalance between the Space Principles and Time Principles that composed the attack. This kind of imbalance stopped the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel from unleashing its full potential.

He had speculated that once both of his Grand Daos reached a state of balance, he would see a significant increase in the power of his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel. Now, it seemed that his speculation was right.

As the powers of both Grand Daos intertwined, they showcased an entirely new Space-Time Strength, which seemed to resonate with the Universe itself. The instant the Royal Lord cast the Royal Lord Secret Technique, his expression changed drastically.

His aura was frail at this moment, and faced with the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, he couldn’t help feeling that his life was at risk.

The Royal Lord madly surged his Black Ink Strength in an attempt to drive it off; however, affected by the strange Space-Time Strength, his mind and movements became sluggish. Before he could come to his senses, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had already struck his figure.

An invisible impact then spread across the void. The Sun and Moon exploded and formed into a massive sphere of light.

At that instant, time and space seemed to have fallen into a chaotic state. Even Yang Kai, the one who cast this Divine Ability, felt that everything seemed to have turned upside down.